ATLANTA -- With an East Lake Golf Club course buttoned down by difficult rough, thin fairways and lightning-fast greens, the stretch run to the FedExCup Playoffs. finish line Sunday might resemble the Running of the Bulls.

Tiger Woods and Justin Rose set the pace with matching 4-under-par 66s in the first round of the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola, but more than a dozen players were closely drafting them in a mad dash for the $10 million pot of gold that goes to the winner of the PGA Tour's postseason.

In all, 18 of the 30 players broke par and only nine finished north of 70.

"I know to be patient here, because it is a tough course," Steve Stricker said after his 67. "No one's really going to go crazy low here. It's playing difficult. It's playing long. It tests your patience. The greens are extremely fast. You get on the wrong side of (the hole), and you're just putting defensively around here. So you need to have a lot of patience and just keep plugging along.

"Just take it one day and one shot at a time."

Woods and Rose each had six birdies to take a one-shot lead on Stricker, Bo Van Pelt, Matt Kuchar and Scott Piercy, who has the longest shot of winning the FedExCup. Another stroke back at 68 were Brandt Snedeker, Hunter Mahan, Robert Garrigus, Adam Scott and Zach Johnson. Seven players were at 69, including Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson.

"This is a tournament, and the way the course is set up, that with four rounds in the 60s, it's going to go a long way this week," Scott said. "That's one. We've got three to go, and I'll be right there."

Kuchar said a cooperating putter helped him.

"It's long. It's tight. The greens are firm and fast," Kuchar said. "It's got all the dimensions of being a tough golf course."

The field is pretty tough, too, as 26 of the world's top 36 are here.

"Just being here at this tournament is a good feeling," said Rose (24th in the standings), who was in good position last year to win the FedExCup but didn't play well at East Lake. "There are 21 of the top 22 players in the world here this week, so that gets your juices flowing to be able to play in a tournament like this and compete against the best.

"From the FedExCup point of view, it's a position of having nothing to lose, really. Obviously, I'd like to be much higher up the rankings, and that's the scenario from last year. Last year I didn't factor in the tournament, and this year maybe being a little bit looser out there is going to help me. I think I've only got this tournament on my mind. A lot of the other guys have two trophies on their minds."

McIlroy, paired with Woods for the fifth time in the playoffs, had his eye more on the course than on his playing partner.

"If you don't hit fairways, it's hard. If you hit the ball in the rough here, it's very, very difficult to get any control on your ball," the world's No. 1 player said. "Obviously, putting the ball on the fairway is a premium, and for the most part today I did that. But anytime you don't hit a fairway, you're making life difficult for yourself."

Woods, No. 2 in the world, is trying to win the FedExCup for the third time. He dropped six birdies on East Lake but was always on edge. But he's as comfortable here as anyone -- in his last four starts, he has one win and three seconds on a course he said fits his eye just as Torrey Pines, Muirfield Village, Firestone and Augusta National do.

"I've had a few golf courses that fit my eye, but they're all very different," Woods said. "I've played well on them quite a few times. I think it's just I prefer the old, traditional golf courses like this. Trouble is just right there in front of you. It's very simple, but it's hard.

"It's rare that you see guys go low here, but it's very simple. Really, there's not a lot of trouble out here, but guys just have a hard time getting it low out here."